Nut crackers for use by individuals to crack the relatively hard shell of nuts to access the meat therein are well known and provided in a variety of ornamental shapes and operative embodiments.
Known nut crackers include a basic mallet and anvil, screw-type force applicators, and most commonly, handle manipulated pivoted jaws which receive a nut therebetween and crush the shell as the handles are drawn together.
As will be appreciated by anyone familiar with conventional nut crackers, problems are frequently encountered in their use. Such problems include an incomplete cracking of the shell, the application of excess force resulting in a destructive crushing of the meat within the shell, difficulty in positioning and retaining the nut during the cracking operation, a scattering of the residue of the cracked nut, and the like.
An apparent attempt to at least avoid the problem of a scattering of the residue of the cracking operation will be noted in a German patent document in the name of Voigtlander, bearing the No. 285,836, and the date Jul. 15, 1915. The disclosed cracker in this document incorporates a pair of opposed hemispherical covers which mount over the cracking jaws and close thereover either independently of the movement of the jaws or in conjunction with the manipulation of the handles. The actual cracking of the nut is apparently performed by conventional opposed narrow jaws.